Understanding Food and Eating

Obesity is a serious problem, and it is becoming recognised as a chronic medical condition. What's the right thing to do about it? How is it that some people seem to find it so hard, even though they want to change, while others don't have a problem?

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Whether you are overweight or not, it is important to eat a healthy diet, which means a diet for life that:

Includes, over the course of a few days, a wide variety of fruit and vegetables, oily fish, beans, nuts, and low fat dairy produce;

• is low in saturated fat, especially from deep fried foods (which includes chips, and things like crisps that are fried for you at the factory);
• contains only enough sugary and starchy foods (like bread or mash) to fuel your level of activity, especially if you tend to be overweight;
• and is low in salt, (unless your blood pressure is regularly checked and is below average).

Most of the salt in people's diets, and most of the "bad" kind of fats, do not come from what they add at home, at the table or in cooking, but come from pre-prepared foods like pizzas, ready meals, and even ordinary bread. Things that come from factories.

It's important that you enjoy your diet. I think of this as vitamin P (for pleasure) - you must eat some things that you really like. That doesn't mean you have to eat everything that you like, or eat a lot of them. It's also possible, much more possible than most people think, to teach yourself to like new things, if you stick with them for a little while.

Whether you're overweight or not, you should be eating a diet as described above. If you are overweight, you need to eat like that but less of it.

It sounds simple to eat less, but if you've tried it, you probably know it isn't easy. We know that the body contains mechanisms that control its weight automatically, just as it controls its temperature. This control mechanism is driven by hormones, and some but not all of these have now been identified. The body can compensate to a significant extent for the food that is eaten and the exercise that is taken, in order to maintain the steady state that it wants to. It's not easy to over-ride that control mechanism.

Some things that can help

Overweight people aren't all the same. I know some who take almost no physical activity, and I know one who runs every day, and regularly does marathons. I know some who eat very healthily, and some who don't. I know some where it's about beer, and some where it's about food. There's no advice that fits everyone, but there are some common themes. The first thing is that punishing yourself doesn't help. Whether it's punishing yourself with food, with strict diets, with harsh exercise, with overwork, or anything else, it really doesn't help.

Research shows that exercise does help significantly with long-term success in weight loss. In my opinion this is not because it "burns calories", but because it develops the right hormonal balance and mental state. I definitely do not recommend swimming, which encourages the body to keep a layer of fat. Nor running or very vigorous activities such as squash. I recommend brisk walking daily, and weight training twice a week.

There is some good research that shows that lack of sleep creates a hormonal disturbance that leads to weight gain. Make sure you are getting enough sleep, at the same time each night, and in a suitable environment (quiet, dark, right temperature, comfortable).

A diet lower in carbohydrates is healthier for most overweight people. The famous, or infamous, Atkins diet was based on this principle, and many people found that it worked for them, if they did it properly. However, a big backlash has now begun, led by nutritionists and the government. Some people were misrepresenting Atkins to say that they would live on a diet of fry-ups, meat and cheese, and no fruit or vegetables, and nutritionists felt they had to oppose this. You certainly need fibre and vitamins in your diet, so you should never cut out fruit, vegetables, or beans, nor should you take it as a license to live on fry-ups. However, if you are overweight, it is worth cutting down the other sources of carbohydrates: the potatoes, pasta, rice, bread, biscuits, crisps, puddings, confectionery etc. Many of these are disguised as "healthy" products like muesli bars or "lower fat crisps" - but they are still carbohydrates. Try reducing them and see what effect it has. You can do this and still eat a healthy diet.

Many people who are overweight will be familiar with the feelings of food panic. A desperate need to eat, at times. Eating too fast when the food arrives. Worrying that the food will be too little or too late. Eating more than is needed, in the frenzy to make the feeling go away. One explanation for this is that it's caused by blood sugar swings, and the lower carbohydrate approach mentioned above will help with that. So will pausing for half an hour after you've eaten a reasonable amount, to give it time to take effect -- but that can be hard to do in the grip of a food frenzy. Another way of looking at it is that eating is a way of avoiding certain feelings. You may find, for example, that when you begin to approach that state, that you are tensing up, somewhere in your body, often around the mouth, tongue, or throat. It helps to learn to relax, and to know that the feelings associated with hunger are tolerable, and not disastrous.

One saying associated with this last point is "it's not so much what you're eating, as what's eating you".

I don't suggest going into therapy to try to excavate the problems of the past, but it can be worth noticing occasions when you ate more than you'd intended to: what triggers them, what the feeling is like, and how it's different from when you're calm and relaxed. Learn that you can, after all, survive the feelings that go with hunger. What is it that you really need, and what would it be like if you had it? Practice noticing those muscles that tense up, and then relaxing them.

Making a change in your body is a very big thing to do. When you lose weight, everything will be different. People will react differently to you. The things you can and do spend your time on will be different. In some ways, you will be a different person. And other people may think, consciously or unconsciously, that something's wrong with you, and try to change you back. They mean well. You will need to be sure of who you are, and who you intend to become.
First step.

The key is to notice the signals from your body. Learn to notice the signals of fullness. Learn the difference between hunger, which is in the stomach, and craving, which is usually in the region of the mouth, eyes, and throat. Learn to relax those areas.

Read this article again, and notice what I'm really saying. If it fills you with the urge to "do something about it", to start seriously dieting, or take up hard exercise, then set aside that urge to punish yourself. Enjoy your food fully, and your rest. Instead of thinking about not eating, think about what will be important to you, and what your life will be centered around, when you've lost weight.

© Mike Gray 2005